John Belfield – accused of murdering Thomas Campbell – gave evidence at his trial this week. Mr Belfield, 31, denies murdering and conspiring to rob Mr Campbell, who was dead found in his home in Mossley, Tameside, after being ‘tortured to death’. He is alleged to have been the ‘mastermind’ of the plot, which he denies. Coleen Campbell’s ex-wife, Coleen Campbell, Reece Steven and Stephen Cleworth have all previously been convicted in connection with the 38-year-old’s death. Coleen Campbell and Stephen Cleworth were convicted of manslaughter, while Steven was found guilty of murder. The trio were also found guilty of conspiracy to rob. Mr Belfield has been on trial and gave evidence in his defence this week. The trial is set to resume on Monday. Here is everything the jury heard this week… After a brief period of questioning on the previous Friday afternoon, defence counsel Richard Wright KC began his first full day asking questions of Mr Belfield. Mr Wright asked Mr Belfield about various areas of Greater Manchester and his associations with them. Asked about Mossley, where Mr Campbell lived, he said: “I used to visit Mossley quite regularly. There’s a walking bit and a reservoir. “I used to take my dog and go jogging and things like that. There’s restaurants there, it’s quite a nice area to be honest.” He said he used to visit an address in Oldham because of a ‘cannabis farm’. He said: “It was like a group of us who had the cannabis farm together.” Mr Belfield told the jury he accepted he had been dealing drugs since the age of 18 or 19. He said he was making ‘around £2,000’ a week. He said he also received ‘lump sums’ in addition from his involvement in cannabis farms. He said he was dealing cocaine and cannabis at the time of the alleged murder. He said he wasn’t selling drugs on the street but was ‘more like wholesale’. He also bought and sold cars and repaired damaged vehicles, jurors heard. Mr Belfield accepted he was living a ‘criminal lifestyle’. He said: “Yes, I was a criminal. I sold drugs, yes.” Mr Wright then asked Mr Belfield about various people in the case. He was being asked about Demi-Lee Driver, the woman he used to be in a relationship with, who Thomas Campbell was with at the time of his death. He said they had never lived together full time, and said he wasn’t ‘in love’ with her. He said he chose to end the relationship. The defendant said: “I didn’t want to be with her anymore. She didn’t really take it too well. It was mutual in the end.” He denied being jealous of her being with Thomas Campbell. Asked about Coleen Campbell, he said he had known her for about two years prior to the events in question. He said they knew each other from socialising in the same pubs and similar areas. He said he ‘didn’t know her too well’. Asked about Stephen Cleworth, he said he met him when they were both in prison previously. He said he was good friends with Cleworth and they would socialise. Asked whether he engaged in criminal activity with him, Mr Belfield said: “We started selling drugs together, cannabis mainly.” He said Cleworth was ‘unreliable’. “I like to run things properly,” the defendant said. “I didn’t like not paying people on time, because it just causes problems.” Mr Belfield said he met Reece Steven through Cleworth. “I used to buy cocaine off Reece Steven to distribute,” he added. Asked about Thomas Campbell, Mr Belfield said he had known him for about 10 years. He said he’d known him through the local area, and they would speak together. “I wouldn’t say we was friends, but we were definitely associates,” Mr Belfield said. “I have been out with him and things like that. I have never done business with Thomas Campbell. He used to offer me drugs and try to tell me to take them off him but I would never take drugs off him. “He is a bit higher up in the drugs situation than me. He would offer me the drugs to sell for him.” Mr Belfield denied ever having any ‘trouble’ with Mr Campbell. “No, I’ve never had trouble with Thomas Campbell in my life,” he said. Asked about a Vauxhall Combo used during the attack on Thomas Campbell, Mr Belfield said he had been ‘around’ the vehicle but has never been inside it. Asked about a phone handset and a number, he accepted using them both. But he said wasn’t the only person to use them both as part of drug dealing. He said: “Phones to drug dealers are more like customer numbers, they are not really personal devices.” Mr Wright then began asking Mr Belfield about events chronologically. Firstly, on June 25. Mr Belfield said he was at home, living in Preston at the time, with his daughter. He asked whether he requested to follow Coleen Campbell on Instagram. “I don’t recall following the account on that date,” he said. Mr Wright asked: “Were you trying to follow her so you could find out information about Thomas Campbell?” “No, definitely not,” Mr Belfield replied. Mr Wright asked: “Did it have anything to do with you planning to rob Thomas Campbell in his own home?” “No,” he replied. Jurors heard about a further Instagram message, when he messaged Thomas Campbell asking for his phone number. Mr Belfield said he told him that his ex-partner, and Thomas’ current partner, had been asking him to ‘go around and sleep with her’, and that his ex-wife had added her on Instagram. He denied he was calling him to cause ‘trouble’. “Tom’s a lot bigger and stronger than me. I wouldn’t want any trouble with him,” the defendant said. Mr Belfield added: “Not to cause trouble, just to be transparent because I would want to know if I was him, and these women were making him look a bit silly. Asked what Mr Campbell’s reaction was, Mr Belfield said: “It was like he didn’t believe me.” Mr Belfield was asked why he took a screenshot from Instagram of Coleen Campbell in a bikini. “I’m not sure, maybe just to look at the picture, because I think it is on a timer,” he said. Asked if he was messaging Coleen Campbell for a ‘sexual purpose’, Mr Belfield said: “There could potentially, but I didn’t know at that time, but possibly.” He accepted she found Campbell ‘attractive’. Mr Belfield denied he wanted to ’cause trouble’ with Thomas Campbell. He told jurors: “If I was with a new girl and she was ringing up her ex-partner to come and sleep with her, I would want to know. I thought I was doing the right thing, to be honest.” Mr Belfield was asked about a message he sent to his ex in which he said ‘I’m going to sh** his baby mum’, meaning Coleen Campbell. Questioned about why he sent it, Mr Belfield said: “I just thought I would tell her. I knew it would have irritated her.” Asked if he thought he would sleep with Coleen Campbell, Mr Belfield said: “Yeah, it could have been a possibility.” Mr Wright asked Mr Belfield why he saved Coleen Campbell’s number in his phone. He denied trying to gain information about Thomas Campbell. Mr Belfield said: “No, I was just speaking to her in general, because I thought she was pretty good looking.” He said that Coleen Campbell was ‘going on’ about Thomas Campbell and his new girlfriend. “I just felt she [Coleen Campbell] was quite bitter towards Tom,” Mr Belfield said. Jurors heard that Mr Belfield spoke with Thomas Campbell over the phone on the morning of June 26. He said that Thomas told him not to speak to his ex anymore and that he shouldn’t speak to Coleen. Shortly after, he called Coleen Campbell and they had a 34 minute conversation. He said he ‘wasn’t going to listen’ to Thomas Campbell. Asked what they spoke about, Mr Belfield said: “Just pretty much to tell her what Tom had just said, that I’m not allowed to speak to her.” He then spoke to Stephen Cleworth. “I told him I had spoke to Coleen and Tom, because it was a bit unusual,” the defendant said. He said he told Cleworth he was ‘a bit worried’. “It is not a good idea for me to get into conflict with Tom Campbell,” Mr Belfield said. Jurors heard about further calls between Mr Belfield and Coleen Campbell that day. Asked what they talked about, he said: “I can’t recall to be honest, just general chit chat I think.” Mr Belfield was asked why he searched a Manchester Evening News article featuring Thomas and Coleen Campbell, with the headline ‘coupIe enjoyed five stat lifestyle funded by crime’. He said he had visited his daughter’s grandmother and was ‘just explaining the situation, who it was’. Jurors heard that on June 27, Mr Belfield woke up at his home in Preston before travelling to Manchester. Mr Belfield said he had been unable to get hold of Cleworth, and so he contacted his mother. “We had stuff we needed to pick up at the Boat and Horses and things like that, and people to collect money off,” the defendant said. He denied it was anything to do with a plan to attack Thomas Campbell. Mr Belfield said he was attending the Boat and Horses to meet a contact, ‘conducting a drug deal’. He said the drug deal was completed in the car park of the pub. “There was an exchange of bags, and I gave him a crate with cash inside it,” he said. Mr Belfield said he received a large bag of cannabis, and that he handed over around £8,000. Cleworth later arrived with Reece Steven, jurors heard. Mr Belfield said he didn’t know Steven was going to attend, but didn’t think it was unusual. “I didn’t think anything of it,” he said. Mr Belfield denied having any knowledge that Steven was showing them how to plant a tracker on a car. He said he wasn’t aware of the gesture being made at the time. “I didn’t know there was going to be a tracker placed on his car,” the defendant said. Mr Belfield told jurors he didn’t know that a tracking device was going to be placed on Thomas Campbell’s car when he was picking up his child. He denied being present at that time. The defendant said he only found out that a tracking device had been put on Mr Campbell’s car later that day, when Cleworth informed him. Mr Belfield told jurors of how he found out a tracker had been put on Mr Campbell’s car. The defendant said: “He just told me to look at this phone screen. He told me he had put a tracker on Thomas Campbell.” Asked what he said to Cleworth, Mr Belfield said: “There was nothing really I could say to Stephen Cleworth about what he was doing. I couldn’t stop him. I was just more fuming that he had used my mum’s car.” He added: “I don’t steal from people like Tom. I didn’t want to get into anything like that with Tom. But I knew that Stephen Cleworth had put the tracker on and I knew that he intended to steal his drugs from him.” Mr Belfield added: “In my line of work, if you can call it, drug dealing, other drug dealers steal off other ones. It happens quite regularly.” Asked if he was ‘willing to get involved in stealing Mr Campbell’s drugs’, Mr Belfield said: “Not at this point, no.” Jurors heard Mr Belfield accepted being on the street in Mossley where Mr Campbell lived, on June 27. He was in a car with Stephen Cleworth and another man, he said. “Stephen Cleworth wanted to go and look where the tracker was locating,” Mr Belfield said. Asked if he was ‘happy’ to be involved, Mr Belfield said: “I wouldn’t say happy, but I was in the car, yeah.” Asked why he thought Cleworth had attended, the defendant said: “I think to start to try to locate Tom’s stash, where he keeps his drugs.” Mr Belfield accepted he later returned to the street later that day with Reece Steven. He has told jurors his cousin lived on the street, or if not, to ‘see if Tom had a cannabis farm inside’. “Probably we would take it, if he had one,” he said. Mr Belfield then began talking about events of June 29. He said he met Coleen Campbell that afternoon, with a view to selling her a Rolex watch. She suggested they could meet at her shop, but Mr Belfield said he was ‘worried’ about doing so. “He [Thomas Campbell] would probably beat me up to be honest, if he had seen me at the shop,” he said. Asked what they spoke about after meeting up, Mr Belfield said: “We were just speaking in general. “We got onto the subject of the phone and where would his drugs be stored. “I asked Coleen where would the drugs be in order to steal them. Thomas Campbell stored his drugs outside. I knew this myself, because he has told me. Also, I store drugs outside. “Coleen told me they would be stored on Clayton Vale in Clayton. She gave a few locations also. She gave Daisy Nook, another area. She said he stashed drugs in the field near his house.” Mr Belfield continued to be questioned by his counsel Richard Wright KC. Mr Wright asked Mr Belfield: “Were you yourself willing to be involved with them [co-defendants Stephen Cleworth and Reece Steven] in stealing drugs from Thomas Campbell?” “Yes,” the defendant replied. The barrister continued: “As far as you were concerned, did your agreement to steal from Thomas Campbell extend to using force, violence, or the threat of violence to steal?” “No, not at all,” the defendant replied. “Where Tom would store his drugs, there would be no one at that place. The drugs could be stolen, we would sell them and no-one would know who had stole them.” Mr Wright asked Mr Belfield whether any plans had been discussed between him, Reece Steven and Stephen Cleworth about looking for the drugs by June 29, days before the killing. “At that point, not fully,” he said. “Just to go and look at some locations where they could possibly be.” Mr Belfield said he and Stephen Cleworth attended the street in Mossley where Mr Campbell lived on the evening of June 29. He said: “We thought we would go up to Thomas Campbell’s because Reece has told me that no one is at the house. We thought that would be a good time to look near the field, when Tom wasn’t in, to look for his drugs.” He told the jury that when they arrived, Stephen Cleworth told him: ”What I think we should do because Tom’s not in, is I will smash the window and you go in and steal some stuff from his house.” The defendant added: “At that point I said ‘not a chance’, I wanted to steal drugs, I didn’t want to go to his house. I’m not doing that. I didn’t want to go anywhere near Tom’s house. “Imagine he came back. If this ever came out, if I went in Thomas Campbell’s house, he would probably end up shooting me or one of my family members. I was up for stealing some drugs, but not for going into his house.” Jurors heard a phone, which prosecutors claim was used by John Belfield, sent Coleen Campbell a message late on June 29 saying ‘tomorrow’. But Mr Belfield denied he had this phone in his possession at that stage and that others also used it. He said he was at his sister’s home around this period. Mr Belfield said he next had possession of the phone the following morning. Mr Belfield was taken through the sequence of events – in chronological order – now reaching June 30, 2022. Prosecutors alleged Mr Belfield had a phone conversation with Coleen Campbell that morning. Mr Belfield denied accessing the tracker or calling Coleen Campbell later that day. He denied he was ‘planning a robbery’ on Thomas Campbell with Reece Steven and Stephen Cleworth that evening. “I told them the day before, I didn’t want to do anything with it,” the defendant said. “They said they were going to continue looking for his drugs. I didn’t want anything to do with it anymore.” Mr Belfield said he went to a girlfriend’s house and spend the night there. Prosecutors alleged Mr Belfield, Cleworth and Steven all went to Mossley that night and were ‘hunting down’ Thomas Campbell in the woods, and ‘failing to catch him’. Mr Belfield denied he was present in Mossley that night, in what the prosecution has described as an ‘aborted attack’. Mr Belfield said he couldn’t recall whether he was in possession of the phone which was engaged in the call, which he has said others also used. Phone data showed the device was later in the vicinity of B&Q in Oldham. Jurors were earlier told items including a roll of silver duct tape, a blow torch, a gas canister and a black plastic bag were purchased for cash from the store that afternoon. Prosecutors claim the duct tape was used to bind Thomas Campbell during the attack on July 2. Mr Belfield denied attending B&Q that day and denied buying any items from the store. He said he did not know who purchased the items. He was then asked about a phone call in which he spoke with Coleen Campbell. He told the jury he was asking Campbell, who ran a beauty shop, about make-up for a school prom for a friend of his sister. Mr Belfield was then questioned about the events of July 1, 2022, the day before the fatal attack. The defendant said he woke up at his girlfriend’s house. Asked about his plans for the day, the defendant said: “Friday is quite a busy day in terms of drug dealing. I also needed to pick my daughter up as well.” He accepted he was in contact with Reece Steven and Cleworth that day, but said it was about drug dealing and not a plan to rob and attack Thomas Campbell. Mr Belfield accepted he had a phone call with Coleen Campbell that day. Asked what they spoke about, he said: “Just what she was up to at the weekend and that the make-up appointment is about 55 minutes from that. “I was possibly giving her an update. And just general chit chat, to be honest.” Mr Belfield said Cleworth travelled to North Wales to conduct a drug deal on his behalf. Cleworth dropped off cocaine and cannabis and picked up about £15,000, the defendant said. Mr Wright then asked Mr Belfield about the events of July 2, 2022 – the day Thomas Campbell was fatally attacked. Jurors heard Mr Belfield was unable to contact Cleworth that morning. The court heard Mr Belfield texted Cleworth and said: “This is what I mean about you mate you can’t even work with you bro.” He denied the ‘work’ was a plan to attack Thomas Campbell, and that it actually was referencing the drug deal the previous day. “He just disappears on drugs benders and things like that,” Mr Belfield said of Cleworth. “His unavailability was just stressing me out. On the 2nd he was meant to meet more people for me.” Jurors heard Mr Belfield messaged a contact to say: “Can you get down my driver is f****** about? On a bender.” Mr Belfield denied he was ‘arranging a substitute member of the team’ to attack Mr Campbell. He said he wanted to collect money from the contact, who he said was a ‘customer’ who he sold cocaine to. Jurors heard Reece Steven messaged Cleworth to say ‘make sure you are ready for 8 mate, we’re on’. Mr Belfield denied knowing anything about the message. Jurors heard Mr Belfield went to Stephen Cleworth’s home to pick up money from the drug deal the previous day. Mr Wright said Cleworth wasn’t there and was at Decadence Swinger’s bar at the time. Mr Belfield said he collected the money and then went to meet Reece Steven. He said he was going to meet Steven because he owed him £12,000 for cocaine. Jurors heard Mr Belfield and Reece Steven attended the Flavour Factory takeaway in Failsworth at about 9pm. Asked what they spoke about, Mr Belfield said: “It was about an assault that took place on me, and events in Lancaster Farms [prison] in 2017.” He said he was attacked ‘quite badly’ by another inmate. “I was telling him about what happened to me in 2017,” he said of his chat with Mr Steven. He denied their conversation was related to Thomas Campbell, and denied accessing the tracking device on Mr Campbell’s vehicle. Jurors heard Mr Belfield and Coleen Campbell had a 25 minute phone call at about 9.10pm. The defendant accepted it was him speaking with her. Asked what they spoke about, Mr Belfield said: “I was just asking her what she was doing at the weekend, it was just general chit chat, nothing bad. “The majority of the conversation was about she was going to take the kids to a festival the next day. She did say she Tom had turned up at the house.” He denied passing the information on with intent to commit a robbery against Mr Campbell. Mr Belfield said that he then travelled to his sister’s home in Ashton-under-Lyne, before going to Asda to buy snacks for the children while they watched a film. The defendant said he returned to his sister’s home and that Steven, who had also been at the house, then left with a phone which the prosecution have attributed to Mr Belfield. “I just sat down with the girls and put a film on,” he said, asked what he did next. Asked what film they watched, he added: “I believe it was Finding Nemo. I can remember it quite well because it was the last time I was really around my daughter that time. “They fell asleep into it quite early, I carried them up at about 12 o’clock.” Mr Belfield said that he then watched TV before going to sleep on the couch. Asked if he was one of the three men who went to Mossley to attack Thomas Campbell, the defendant said: “I didn’t go to Thomas Campbell that night. I was at home with my daughter and my nieces. “I wouldn’t do a crime like that, ever. I was at home at my sister’s.” Mr Belfield said he was woken up at about 3.30am on July 3, to find Reece Steven at the front door. The defendant said: “He said he had been to Tom’s to try and get the stash, and it had got a bit out of hand. He just said they had got into a bit of an altercation with Tom. He didn’t really expand on it, but said an incident had happened. “I just said I don’t understand why he had come to my sister’s at that point.” Mr Belfield said Steven was asking if he could use a vehicle. He agreed to let him use his sister’s VW Golf, jurors hear. “I should have just told him to leave,” Mr Belfield said. “At that point I didn’t know how bad the situation was at that point. I should have just turned him away.” He said his sister was ‘pretty angry’ when she learned that Steven had taken her car. Mr Belfield said that at around 4am on July 3, he received a message on Instagram from a woman he had been seeing. He said he then travelled to her home in Wythenshawe. Jurors hear that he spoke with Coleen Campbell later that morning. He said he didn’t know Mr Campbell had died. Of the conversation with Coleen Campbell, Mr Belfield said: “I told her that they had been round to Tom’s house to try and steal his stash.” Asked about her response, he added: “She didn’t really react, no. She didn’t really care. The thing what’s happened from Tom stems from her. I didn’t want to go to a festival with her with my child after something like that had happened.” Jurors heard that a member of the public called 999 after finding Mr Campbell’s body at about 10.30am. Mr Belfield says he learned what happened at Thomas Campbell’s house was ‘serious’. Later on, the defendant said he spoke over the phone to Coleen Campbell. “I just asked if she had heard anything,” the defendant said. “The more time went on, the more nervous I was getting.” He says Campbell told him that she hadn’t heard anything. Family liaison officers from GMP first spoke to the Campbell family at 5pm on July 3, jurors heard. Mr Belfield later travelled to Reece Steven’s flat in Middleton, the court is told. “He was off his face on drugs, Mr Belfield said. “He was on cocaine and had a large knife on him. He wasn’t really making much sense.” Mr Belfield said he still didn’t know that Mr Campbell had died at this stage. Jurors heard Mr Belfield spent the night in Preston. Mr Belfield said he first became aware of Mr Campbell’s death after being told by Stephen Cleworth. Asked for his reaction to learning of his death, Mr Belfield said: “I was more scared now what was going to happen to me, because of who Tom is and things like that.” Mr Wright asked: “What did you have to worry about?” “Because I now knew that my friends and associates have done this crime,” the defendant replied. He denied being involved in dumping any of Mr Campbell’s possessions in the canal. Mr Belfield said he then decided to leave Manchester. “I was absolutely terrified of what’s going on,” he said. Mr Belfield said he travelled to Holyhead, before taking a ferry to Dublin. He said he then travelled to Amsterdam, then on to Spain before flying to Brazil. He said he then travelled to Suriname. “I heard that Thomas Campbell’s associates were trying to locate me in Spain because people knew I was in Spain,” Mr Belfield said. “My cousin was in Suriname at the time. I think he was wanted by the police so he was staying there. I was just more devastated that I was away from my child. It’s not a very nice country to be honest. I was just there to keep myself safe.” Mr Belfield said he was arrested and later deported from the country to the Netherlands, and was then deported back to the UK. He says he was kept in custody in Suriname. “It was pretty horrendous to be honest,” he said. Asked why he left the country, Mr Belfield said: “Because I didn’t want to put my family in danger by being in England.” He said he feared that someone would ‘attack and maybe kill me’. “Things happen where people retaliate and try and get people back, people can die,” the defendant said. He denied that he had left because he had been involved in the murder of Thomas Campbell. Mr Wright then asked about messages which Mr Belfield had sent while in Suriname, using the encrypted messaging app Signal. “I never thought for a million years anyone would ever see these messages,” he said. He was asked about a message sent by a contact named ‘James’, who Mr Belfield says was Reece Steven. “Tom was sentenced to death in the name of Jesus,” one of the messages read. Asked about his thoughts of the message, Mr Belfield said: “It is disgusting.” Mr Wright asked why he was interested in the case. He said: “Because it concerned me, and they were saying I was involved in this crime.” Mr Wright asked: “Who was?” “The Manchester Evening News and the Greater Manchester Police,” the defendant replied. “Were you involved in the crime?,” Mr Wright asked. “No I wasn’t, on the 29th I told them I didn’t want anything to do with this crime,” he replied. Asked why he was ‘helping Reece Steven to dishonestly be acquitted’, Mr Belfield said: “I didn’t want him to go to jail for the rest of his life. That’s why I done it.” Mr Belfield added: “I didn’t murder Thomas Campbell.” The trial did not sit. Prosecutor Nicholas de la Poer KC began cross-examining Mr Belfield on Thursday (June 26). Mr de la Poer said he would start by asking about a message Mr Belfield sent from Suriname, in which he said ‘soft boys can’t war us’. Mr Belfield claimed it was a reference to a song lyric by Silky. “It does put it into proper context if you display the next message,” the defendant said. “I didn’t mean anything like you are implying.” He said the message was ‘inappropriate’. The jury is shown a video clip which they hear was sent to Mr Belfield by Reece Steven. Over a music clip, a caption stated: “Everyone is a gangster until the real gangster arrives.” “I can’t comment on why Reece Steven sent me that video,” he said. Jurors heard that Mr Belfield sent Thomas Campbell a message which read: “I’m going to sh** her for the point of it as well as saying you like her you soft boy.” He accepted ‘her’ was Coleen Campbell. Mr Belfield says he deleted the message shortly after so that Thomas Campbell couldn’t see it. “I was a bit upset and thought it was a bad idea and I deleted it, as you can see,” he says. Mr Belfield denied that he was ‘obsessed’ with his ex-partner Demi-Lee Driver. “Definitely not,” he said. “I was in multiple relationships at that time. I definitely wasn’t obsessed by Demi-Lee Driver.” Asked about a message he sent to Demi-Lee Driver, in which he said ‘you’re mine’, Mr Belfield said it was sent in a ‘sarcastic way’. Asked about another message in which he told her ‘you belong to me now Demi-Lee’, Mr Belfield said he was ‘taking the p*** a bit really’. Mr de la Poer referred to a message he sent her which read: “You will never have a boyfriend you will have to move country give it a week and you will see why and happens when you take the p***.” Mr Belfield denied that was a threat. He says he told her the relationship was over and that she had previously expressed a desire to move abroad. Jurors heard she replied by saying: “Do anything to me and you will be sorry.” The defendant said: “I’m not going to do anything to her. She knows I wouldn’t do anything to her.” Mr de la Poer said that a few days later after the messages, Thomas Campbell died ‘in the most terrible way’. “Thomas Campbell was dead because you had murdered him,” he puts it to the defendant. “Definitely not,” he said. “I didn’t murder Thomas Campbell that day, I was at home with my daughter and my sister.” Mr de la Poer asked Mr Belfield why he spent the days after the tracking device on Thomas Campbell’s car was activated sleeping in Greater Manchester, rather than his home in Preston. “You were waiting for an opportunity to attack Thomas Campbell, weren’t you?”, the prosecutor claimed. He replied: “No I wasn’t, I was just at my sister’s with the kids. It’s the end of the month, more drug dealing goes on.” Mr de la Poer asked whether he had ‘spent a lot of time studying the evidence’ heard at the first trial in 2023. “Yes I looked at it, yeah,” he said. The prosecutor claimed Mr Belfield was ‘trying to look for ways around the truth’. “Definitely not,” he replied. “I just wanted to see why the newspaper was printing that I had murdered someone. “I was devastated, I was worried.” Mr de la Poer asked Mr Belfield about Karl Murphy, who drove the attackers to the scene in Mossley in a Vauxhall Mokka. He was acquitted of assisting a criminal gang at the previous trial, after telling jurors he did not know about what was to follow. “You told Karl Murphy to tell the jury that Reece Steven was not in the Mokka, didn’t you,” the prosecutor said. “I didn’t tell Karl Murphy that, no,” the defendant replied. The KC continued: “That was a plan you worked on for several weeks, wasn’t it?” The defendant replied: “It wasn’t a plan, I spoke to Ryan [Mr Murphy’s son] about it.” Mr de la Poer claimed the ‘next step’ for the ‘plan’ was to ‘discredit’ Mr Murphy by finding out if he was on medication. “Yes, it was a suggestion, yes,” Mr Belfield said. Mr Belfield accepted that he spent ‘time’ and ‘effort’ in ‘constructing a completely false alibi for Reece Steven’, claiming he was cutting cannabis at a cannabis farm at the time. He accepted he looked at Google Maps, Google Street view and drew diagrams. The prosecutor said: “It was all lies, wasn’t it?” “Yes, because I knew what he had done,” Mr Belfield said of Steven. Mr Belfield accepted that he received screenshots of Manchester Evening News coverage of the previous trial, including the opening speech where Mr de la Poer said Mr Campbell was ‘tortured to death’. “You must have known that Thomas Campbell died a terrible death,” Mr de la Poer said. “Horrific, it was horrific,” the defendant replied. The prosecutor continued: “You knew that Reece Steven had done it? “Yes I knew Reece Steven was involved,” the defendant replied. The KC said: “You were doing your best to help Reece Steven get away with murder, weren’t you?” Mr Belfield replied: “I was helping him, yes.” Mr de la Poer said Steven was ‘excited’ and sent a message which read: “It’s like they just gave me a free ticket to a not guilty.” Jurors heard that Mr Belfield was sent images from the jury bundle at the trial. “You were also thinking about the defence you might run if you had to, weren’t you?,” Mr de la Poer asked the defendant. He replied: “I was worried because I was being named as a murderer in the newspaper when I knew I hadn’t murdered anyone.” Jurors have heard that Mr Belfield told a contact: “Yeah just looking what it gonna be like for me there is a was [way] to put myself away from the scene but I’ll have to say it was other people that why it’s good we are on trail [trial] different to each other and if I have an alibi I can’t get found guilty on what they have there’s just not enough and I could have just been naïve.” Asked about the message, he said: “I didn’t want to grass anyone up or say what actually happened, because it’s not good for people in my world who snitch on other people. “Your life is not worth living. I’m on protection now because I can’t go anywhere in jail because I get attacked all the time.” Mr Belfield said Reece Steven and Stephen Cleworth were his friends but denied they were his ‘team’. Mr de la Poer asked: “Was Coleen part of the team as well?” The defendant replied: “No she wasn’t. This wasn’t my team. I just meant it in general terms.” Jurors were told of a message Mr Belfield sent to Reece Steven: “I would love to come back and get the team a not guilty but your gunna have to do it your self just say you will have to ask John that.” Asked why he said ‘team’ in that message, Mr Belfield replied: “It is just terminology.” He denied being ‘in charge’ of Steven and Cleworth. “I wasn’t in charge, no, I wasn’t in charge of anyone,” he said. Mr de la Poer asked him about a message where he called Cleworth his ‘driver’. “He used to drop drugs off for me, I used to drop drugs off for him as well,” Mr Belfield said. “You told Reece Steven what to say about the most important part of his evidence, didn’t you?,” Mr de la Poer asked. “I helped him with an alibi, yes,” the defendant replied. Jurors hear that Steven ‘jokingly’ called Mr Belfield ‘master’ in their messaging. “He is recognising in a jokey way that you are telling people what to do,” Mr de la Poer claimed. “I don’t know in what context Reece Steve is saying it, but I believe it’s to do with the mastermind,” Mr Belfield said, referencing how prosecutors have claimed he was the ‘mastermind’ of the attack on Thomas Campbell. “You are the person in charge of this team aren’t you?,” the prosecutor claimed. He replied: “No, how could I be in charge of people like Reece Steven and Stephen Cleworth, it’s impossible.” Jurors have heard about messages which were ‘mocking’ the death of Thomas Campbell, which Mr Belfield has described as ‘disgusting’. “Are you sure you didn’t find these messages funny?,” Mr de la Poer said. “I didn’t find them funny at all, no,” the defendant said. Jurors hear Reece Steven told Mr Belfield in messages: “Go hard or go home. Get life or no life. God’s with me. Obviously wasn’t with Tom.” Mr Belfield replied: “It was his time to go mate.” Asked about his reply, the defendant said: “Because in the life Tom chose, and I have chose, things like this happen. I didn’t do this to Tom but it is the life he chose.” In a message, Steven said: “Tom crumble. Tomato crumble. Dripping his tomato juice everywhere.” “Must have bled everywhere,” Mr Belfield replied, followed by a ‘laughing crying face emoji’. Asked why he said that, Mr Belfield said: “Just to try and act tough.” In a reply message, Mr Belfield said: “No like a little girl. He is on his period.” Mr de la Poer asked: “You thought that was hilarious didn’t you?” “Not hilarious, no,” Mr Belfield replied. “It is just a stupid thing to say. I accept I shouldn’t have said that. It was a disgusting thing to say.” In a message to Steven, Mr Belfield said of Mr Campbell: “All the lights were on but no one’s home. Actually the lights been smashed out of him.” Mr Belfield said he agreed the message was ‘joking about the period of torture’, and the injuries inflicted which caused his death. “I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said. “I don’t at any point say ‘I’ve done anything’. “It’s bravado between people. You never believe these messages are going to get read. I said stupid things to my friend.” Mr de la Poer then asked Mr Belfield about the days prior to the murder. Mr Belfield said he couldn’t recall adding Coleen Campbell on Instagram on June 25. The prosecutor then asked him about a meeting at the Boat and Horses pub in Oldham on June 27. Mr Belfield said he was conducting a drug deal in the car park of the pub. Jurors heard Mr Belfield was trying to get hold of Stephen Cleworth. Mr de la Poer said: “You had a plan, didn’t you, that by 3pm you needed to be outside the school [where the tracker was placed on Mr Campbell’s car].” “No, that’s not at all what’s going on here,” the defendant replied. Prosecutors alleged that inside the pub, as Reece Steven and Mr Belfield sat at a table with Cleworth, Steven made a gesture showing how a tracker would be placed on a car. Mr Belfield said: “I don’t agree. But he does put his hand under a table. It’s just a gesture. I actually didn’t see this gesture. “This doesn’t mean I was any part of anything. It was not my plan to track Thomas Campbell. I wouldn’t do that.” The prosecutor asked about when the tracking device was placed on Mr Campbell’s car, as he picked his child up from school. Mr Belfield denied being party to that. “I was not part of that plan,” he said. Mr de la Poer further asked the defendant about the tracking device. Mr Belfield said that he, Cleworth and Steven attended the defendant’s mother’s house in Openshaw on the afternoon of June 27. He said another man called Jake was also present. The defendant said he went into the house to have a cup of tea with his mother. A blue Ford Focus belonging to his mother then left and was driven outside the school where Mr Campbell was collecting his child. CCTV footage seen by the jury showed Steven and Cleworth emerging from the car, and Cleworth attaching the tracking device to the underside of the car. Mr Belfield denied that he has ‘invented Jake to avoid admitting you were in the back of that vehicle’. Jurors are hearing Mr de la Poer question Mr Belfield about events on the evening of June 27, when he and Cleworth were said to have travelled to Riverside in Mossley, where Thomas Campbell lived. Mr Belfield left and returned again later that night, this time with Steven. Asked why, Mr Belfield said: “Because I actually couldn’t believe that this house was my cousin’s fiance’s house. I told Reece I didn’t want to go if Thomas was in because I didn’t want him to see me, and I didn’t want any trouble with him. “I didn’t actually know at that point Thomas lived at that address.” After being questioned by Mr de la Poer, Mr Belfield said: “I wasn’t planning an attack on Thomas Campbell, no.” Mr Belfield continued to be questioned about events in the days prior to the killing. Jurors heard that in the evening of June 28, Coleen Campbell messaged Mr Belfield to say: “My little girl said yes it’s his house 100 per cent.” They were shown a photograph of the inside of Mr Campbell’s home, which Mr Belfield said was taken by a former girlfriend of Mr Campbell. “Do you think she has shown that photograph to her child?,” Mr de la Poer asked. “Yes, it’s pretty bad of Coleen to do that,” the defendant replied. “I didn’t tell her to show her child, she’s chose herself to do that.” Mr Belfield was then asked about the events of June 29, when he met Coleen Campbell that afternoon when the tracking device was accessed. Mr de la Poer claimed: “That was you and Coleen Campbell discussing the attack on Thomas Campbell wasn’t it?” The defendant replied: “There’s no reason to discuss an attack at this point. What would I need to show Coleen anything for, there’s no reason to show her anything.” “You are showing her what plans you have had in place for the attack you are going to commit.” Mr de la Poer claimed. The defendant replied: “I wasn’t, I was asking her where he stashes his drugs, she would know, she was with him for ten years.” Mr Belfield said that she told him Mr Campbell stored drugs in multiple fields. “You are never in any field after that information is, you say, passed to you,” the prosecutor claimed. Mr Belfield replied: “I think we go to Daisy Nook at some point yes, and near Clayton Vale.” Mr de la Poer continued to cross-examine Mr Belfield. Mr Belfield admitted that he visited Riverside in Mossley, where Thomas Campbell lived, on June 29. He said he went to look for drugs he believed may be stashed on a nearby field. Mr de la Poer asked him why he didn’t take his phone with him. He put it to him that it was a ‘deliberate decision’ to ‘defeat any potential police investigation’. “Not necessarily to evade the police,” he said. “I just left it in the vehicle. “We was trying to steal some drugs from a field, there was no reason for the police to be called.” Mr Belfield denied attending Riverside again later that night. “I refused, I said ‘I’m not doing this,” he told the jury. “I wanted to steal his drugs with no-one ever knowing I was involved.” Mr de la Poer put it to him that he sent Coleen Campbell a message just before midnight saying: “Tomorrow.” “That’s not me,” Mr Belfield said, denying he sent the text. Jurors heard that prosecutors allege Coleen Campbell had a 22 minute call with Mr Belfield on the morning of June 30. Mr Belfield denied it was him who spoke with her, adding: “I can’t recall this conversation. I don’t remember it. I don’t want to say something where I don’t know the answer.” The prosecution alleged Mr Belfield and Reece Steven attended the B&Q store in Oldham, in the afternoon of June 30. The defendant denied that he attended the shop. He said: “With all the CCTV youse have gathered, you don’t have anyone buying the items in B&Q, I don’t even understand,” he says. Silver duct tape, a blow torch, a gas cannister and a black plastic bag were purchased at the store. The duct tape used to bind Thomas Campbell’s wrists and ankles was found to be ‘visually and chemically identical’ to the tape bought from B&Q, jurors have heard previously. Mr Belfield denied calling Coleen Campbell and engaging in a nine minute phone conversation on the evening of June 30. “I can’t recall the conversation, I don’t believe it was,” he says under questioning. Mr de la Poer asked: “It was you phoning Coleen Campbell on MAB1 (graft phone) after the tracker was checked, do you agree?” “No,” Mr Belfield said. Under further questioning, Mr Belfield said: “I’m a drug dealer, yes. I’m a bad person for selling drugs, but I’m not a robber, I’m not a murderer. I’ve not done this crime.” Mr Belfield denied ‘dumping’ his phone in Denton that evening, when the prosecution claims there was an ‘aborted attack’. “I’ve not dumped the phone,” he said. “I’ve gone to Denton because I don’t want anything to do with their plan. I’m at my girlfriend’s house.” Mr Belfield denied being present in Mossley for the ‘aborted attack’. He said: “I wasn’t there. I was at my girlfriend’s. I knew they was going to look for his drugs but I didn’t go.” Mr Belfield accepted that he had a nine minute conversation with Coleen Campbell on the afternoon of July 1. He said it was to do with a ‘make-up appointment’ for his sister’s neighbour. Mr de la Poer then asked Mr Belfield about events on July 2, the day Thomas Campbell was ambushed outside his home. Mr Belfield agreed that he realised Cleworth was ‘on one of his benders’ and was uncontactable. “With a large quantity of cash of mine, yes,” he said. Jurors heard that Coleen Campbell had a 17 second call with Thomas Campbell that day. ‘Within seconds’, she then called John Belfield and they spoke for 15 minutes and 45 seconds. “You are discussing with her Thomas Campbell and plans for the night, aren’t you?,” Mr de la Poer asked. The defendant replied: “I’m in Heaton Park with my daughter, just walking around the park. Nothing to do with robbing Thomas Campbell or murdering Thomas Campbell. I don’t understand how you get that from that.” Mr Belfield denied trying to ‘recruit’ another man he met for a meal at Miller and Carter in Wilmslow that day. “It was a drug deal, that’s all it was,” he said. Jurors heard that Reece Steven messaged Stephen Cleworth to say: “Make sure you are ready for 8 mate. We’re on.” “I can’t comment on what Reece Steven has sent to Stephen Cleworth,” Mr Belfield said. Jurors heard that Mr Belfield travelled from Wilmslow to Cleworth’s house in Heywood. He said he was attending to collect money from Cleworth. “I’m not conspiring to go and murder anyone,” he said. Mr de la Poer said that Steven got into a Range Rover with a ‘torture bag’, containing items used in the killing of Thomas Campbell. “I didn’t know what was in the bag,” Mr Belfield said. “I’m a drug dealer, people get into cars with bags, I don’t question every single bag. I didn’t even see the bag.” They then travelled to the Flavour Factory takeaway in Failsworth, arriving at about 9pm. Jurors heard Steven was accessing the tracking device. “I don’t really care what he was doing on his phone to be honest, it doesn’t interest me,” he said. Mr Belfield accepted that he spoke with Coleen Campbell for 25 minutes at 9.19pm. He denied that there was anything ‘criminal or inappropriate’ said during the conversation. “I was just talking to her,” he said. “Nothing about Tom,” he added. Asked why Coleen Campbell left her front garden and ‘hid around the corner’ during the call, Mr Belfield said: “I have no clue why Coleen Campbell got up and left the garden.” Jurors heard that Mr Belfield and Steven then drove to Mr Belfield’s sister’s home in Ashton-under-Lyne. At around 10pm Mr Belfield took his daughter and niece to Asda, as Steven remained at the house and ate the takeaway food he bought at Flavour Factory, jurors heard. Mr Belfield returned shortly after. The defendant said that Reece Steven was about to leave then told him he’d lost his phone. Mr Belfield said he gave him the ‘graft phone’ to help look for it, before Steven went out to the Range Rover. “You’re just making things up to try and fit the evidence aren’t you,” Mr de la Poer claimed. “I’m not making things up,” he said. “You both drove off in that Range Rover, didn’t you?,” Mr de la Poer alleged. Mr Belfield replied: “I didn’t leave my sister’s house that night at all.” Referencing the alleged murder, Mr de la Poer put it to him: “You participated in that attack didn’t you?” “No, I didn’t go to the house that night,” Mr Belfield replied. “I didn’t murder Thomas Campbell.” Mr Belfield agreed that Mr Campbell’s face was ‘disfigured’ during the attack. “It’s disgusting that someone would do that,” the defendant said. “I would never do anything remotely like that.” Mr de la Poer asked: “Did you want to disfigure Thomas Campbell so girls would not look at him again? “Definitely not, no,” he replied. “I wasn’t there.” Jurors heard Mr Belfield say in his evidence earlier that Steven turned up at his sister’s house in the early hours, saying it had got ‘a bit out of hand’ in Mossley. Mr de la Poer asked the defendant: “You gave him your sister’s Golf, even though you say you wanted absolutely nothing to do with that?” “Yes, and I regret it,” Mr Belfield said. “I shouldn’t have done it. I didn’t know Tom was dead at this point.” Jurors heard that on the morning of July 3, Coleen Campbell texted Mr Belfield to say: “Was you out last night?” Mr Belfield replied with an emoji. Asked what it was, he said: “I don’t know, it was three years ago.” Mr de la Poer said that Coleen Campbell told a relative that she knew that Thomas Campbell’s ‘face had been cut so that girls wouldn’t look at him’. Mr Belfield denied telling Coleen Campbell about the nature of her former husband’s injuries. He said: “I can’t comment on what Coleen Campbell has done. I didn’t speak about Thomas’ injuries at that point. I was more worried about if Tom would come looking for me now.” The prosecutor said: “That was information only known to the attackers and the police.” “I don’t know,” Mr Belfield replied. Mr de la Poer is asking Mr Belfield about his time in Suriname. The prosecutor asked: “You replied upon Reece Steven to get you the case papers, is that right?” The defendant replied: “I can’t recall. He was showing me some stuff out of the case, so yes.” Jurors hear Reece Steven sent Mr Belfield photographs of the first 34 pages of the sequence of events document. Mr Belfield has said he left the country because he feared for his and his family’s safety. Mr de la Poer put it to him: “Your main motivation was to avoid being arrested, wasn’t it?” “It wasn’t my main one, but I also didn’t want to be arrested, no,” the defendant replied. The prosecutor continued: “You knew you had committed a terrible crime, and it was only a matter of time before the police came after you, and so you ran away, that’s right isn’t it? “I ran away, yes. I was scared,” the defendant replied. The trial was then adjourned until Monday (June 30) Proceeding